Total Gut Renovation in the Sky: 1030 N. State in the Gold Coast
1030 N. State in the Gold Coast (or the Rush Street corridor, if you prefer) was built in 1972. Some units have been renovated, some have not.
This 3-bedroom unit is a 2008 gut renovation of 4 units combined to make one 3300 square foot one.
And thanks to a tipster, you can see footage of the renovation taking place on HGTV’s website which covered this unit for its show “My Big Amazing Renovation”.
See the footage here (click on the “Chicago remodel” link.)
The listing says the unit has exotic woods and rare stones. You can see the huge custom dressing room in the master bedroom in both the photos and in the video. Also, check out the custom baths.
The video on HGTV says they spent $1 million on renovations.
It has city and lake views.
Will this custom unit be able to compete with all the new construction?
Robin Miner at @Properties has the listing. See the pictures and a virtual tour here.
Unit #45G: 3 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, 3300 square feet
- Sold in April 2006 for $715,000 (not sure if that includes all four apartments however)
- Renovated
- Originally listed in February 2009 for $2.8 million
- Reduced
- Currently listed for $2.6 million
- Assessments of $2,000 a month (includes heat, A/C, cable, pool)
- Taxes of $13,906
- No deeded parking- but leased available in the building
- Central Air
- Washer/Dryer in the unit
They did a nice job on this unit. But very tough to compete with Elysian, 30 W. Oak and 50 E. Chestnut. I haven’t seen any sales at this price/sf in 1030 recently, if ever.
Very pretty but probably invested too much in the wrong thing at the wrong time. This will be a tough sell at this price. I agree with Matt, vs. 50E Chestnut and others, absolutely no chance at this price.
i’ll admit i’m the one who watches too much television and tipped off sabrina. i watched the program last year, and i don’t know what they are calling the 3rd BR because they only discussed two on the program. the master suite is a massive space hog (massive closet, sitting room, study, etc.). is it the media room which one might want to leave as a media room? might be able to discuss this unit at “cost” ($1.7mm) but even that feels a tad too high.
and the irony – the husband closing the segment by saying “i think we’re going to be here for a very long time.”
Insanity.
GLS- I watched that episode too! The irony is that the construction consultant they spoke to was on HGTV before advising clients to keep up with comparables so they don’t over-renovate. I wonder what happened to these owners to make them put this place on the market.
Tastefully renovated. However, not worth more than 2M, if that. They will be lucky to break even.
i like this unit too.. but as some have said on here, i couldnt afford the monthly nut!
I saw the show as well, It seems they were/are wealthy enough to take a hit. People on that show don’t bat an eye at 100K here or there.
from what i remember the doors were like 30-40K. custom of course.
Beautifully done, exquisite finishes, now thats keeping up with the jones’s! I love the colors of the wood throughout.
it a gorgeous place, amazing location, floor plan for me doenst work but its the way the current owners wanted
now the question is do you want to pay 2.6m for someone else custom dream home?
MC Hammer knows the answer to that question.
The renovation is pretty nice but god, MIX IT UP A BIT! Everything in this place screams BROWN! And while brown is nice and all, I like a little more variation. This place looks like my mom’s dream house with all the boring colors.
And hey guess what, the place I bought in march was also on HGTV! I didn’t find out about that until last month though lol…
I love HGTV. I watch of a lot of the re-runs and I wonder what has happened to the young, and not so young couples and singles, who several years ago bought with little or no money down and first and second mortgages.
“I love HGTV. I watch of a lot of the re-runs and I wonder what has happened to the young, and not so young couples and singles, who several years ago bought with little or no money down and first and second mortgages.”
Most of them are now quintessential FBs…
I wish they would do a followup to those “Flip this House” folks these days. Where did the road to riches lead them?
Unless a flipper was deft at timing, most probably got stuck holding properties. Heck I would pay to see a ‘Where are they now’ special on these folks. It would be a bigger trainwreck than any celebrity where are they now show VH1 could ever come up with.
The price they wanted for my place (when the HGTV show aired) was 60k higher than I paid! 😮
Just as long as you didn’t actually buy from anybody featured on the show, Sonies. As they are the quintessential real estate porn stars, buying a home from one of those dumb flakes would be akin to marrying a porn star.
Steve A:
Check out Real Estate Intervention (a new show Thursdays on HGTV). It’s sort of a “where are they now”.
I’ve seen RE Intervention show. Watched it last night. It seems that HGTV is kind of pushing caution these days. I do like that many of the shows are set in the DC area where we lived for 30 years (Capitol Hill and Fairfax County) before moving to Madison. My wife and I try to guess where the houses are located.
Bob, I actually agree with you. I used to wonder about some of these specuvestors. Just watching those shows would scare most people from buying a place that is a flip. The corners they cut were unbelievable.
As a lender, I always suspected there was quite a bit of mortgage fraud on the financing side going on too as well.
I recall one show where some flipper didn’t put air conditioning in a house located in Phoenix, AZ! WTF?
Those shows are what told me were were in a bubble. If these dolts could get financing, do a piss poor job of renovation, and then sell the place for a quick $50-$100k in profit, I knew we were in trouble.
Like the old saying goes, “Sell your stocks when you get a stock tip from your shoe shine boy”
“Just as long as you didn’t actually buy from anybody featured on the show, Sonies.”
Oh hell no Bob! The people we bought from was a realtor and a mortgage broker and it was their second home in the city, their house out in the burbs (Schaumburg lol) sold first so they had them and their two kids in a small 2/2 condo… needless to say they were pretty desparate to get the hell out, so we um used that to our advantage.
The HGTV show was filmed I think when the place first went on the market and they hadn’t been living there yet.
The old “Flip This House” show was unreal….most of the flippers had no frickin’ clue what they were doing, I mean not even redimentary knowledge of home construction, dealing with subs, project estimation, budgeting or scheduling… it’s amazing any of them made a dime on their flips. I always wondered if these were the best flippers they could come up with or did they deliberately go for the ones that didn’t have a clue.
I had heard about a RE bubble as far back as 2004 but never really thought much of it until 2005-2006 when I started seeing places like Parkside of Old Town spring up next to Cabrini Green with ask prices of 240k for a 1/1. I knew we were in trouble then.
Flippers are active here, too: check out that 1BR in Vetro with no kitchen where they’re asking 850k for now. Thats a real flip of genius.
I always loved it when they go way over budget on that show while doing routine rehabs. I’m not a building expert by any means but it seemed 90% of them had very poor forecasting skills regarding the costs of materials and labor. I loved watching the overages eat away their cash..
maybe try the below w/this unit? (and not get caught of course!)
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-bar-tender/2009/07/chicago-condo-owner-sued-for-turning-unit-into-bed-and-breakfast.html
Bed & breakfast in a highrise on LSD?
LOL! She should instead be sued for false advertising.
I hope she wins in court–nothing worse than someone trying to interfere with your livelihood.
Wonder why they are trying to sell now, since they said they were going to stay a long time in the original program. I remember the woman as having cancer at some point, so wonder if it has come back.
The building has almost 700 units and does not allow dogs.
really really nice finishes and views but they may have over spent for the building
I am not going to comment on the place as it is very nicely done. But as has been stated before, when you do such an extreme rehab job to bring a place up to YOUR dream house level, you had better be prepared to either live in it for 10-20 years or face losing a huge chunk of $$$ if you are seeking a buyer.
OK… I too admit to watching all of these shows or TIVOing them for later. One thing that stands out on these shows is the prospective buyers featured all want to customize things even if the article in question has already been renovated. It is all a matter of taste or in some cases, lack of taste.
I know when I do rehabs, I do only the most basic with mid-range products. I stay neutral in colors and focus on making the most of the space. Only when I am doing a custom renovation and the house has already been purchased do I go to the extreme level as is seen in this place. I have nothing to lose as I am not seeking a sale upon completion and it is the client’s $$$ that I am spending.
That said, you all need to back the F off flippers here! Most here seem to think all renovation people are of the same group….ripoffs who do only the cheapest work seeking to make a quick $$ at someone else’s expense. As I have stated here many times before, one thing this economic collapse has produced is the elimination of the scam artists who bought for a dollar and attempted to charge one hundred dollars. That group of scum bag flippers flipped themselves to oblivion. They will not be heard from again ever. Only the best of renovators remain and even our work is being scrutinized.
So please, hold off on the generalizations!!
“That said, you all need to back the F off flippers here!”
One of the biggest group of flippers in Chicago were the limted, limited partners that helped get new construction buildings built. By signing contracts and putting up their 10%, or 5%, or $5k, or whatever, they helped the developer get their construction loan and then made money when the developer later raised prices, usually selling w/o having to close.
I think most of the venom is directed at (1) those folks (and the hard sale some of them probably gave some of their acquiantences, trying to unload their contracts) who added *no* real value and made lotso money and (2) the scammer flippers (another large contingent in Chicago) who reno only cosmetic things and then sell to either (a) co-conspirators who mortgage fraud their way into $$, or (b) poor saps who get stuck with a crapbox.
Now, with this one, as you note, WL, **if** they went into it intending to flip the place (which I don’t believe, based on everything), they are (1) mendacious and (2) dumb, as they over-customized and overspent. **IF** they always intended to sell (which, again, I don’t believe), no one should have any sympathy–It’s like Texas Pacific giving all that money to WaMu–garbage into the decision process, lots of red ink out.
I agree with your analysis and explaination anon as the same thing happened in Florida.
I agree too with the points made about the owners of this place. As beautiful as it ended up, their renovation plans were severely clouded by emotions caused by watching these housing renovation shows!
I know personally I had to have a crew member/best friend literally physically pull me out of a few shops in New Jersey (lol best places for some replacement items) on a number of occasions when I built out my warehouse sized loft in NYC. Had I not listened to him during construction, the total reno cost of my place would have been at the very least, double…still enjoyable to only me, but a hell of a lot of $$$$ to spend!
Listing $2.8M reduced to $2.6M cancelled 1/11/10 after 335 days